Bible Strands
Jeremiah 7:6
if you no longer oppress the foreigner and the fatherless and the widow, and if you no longer shed innocent blood in this place or follow other gods to your own harm,
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God speaks through Jeremiah to the people of Judah, framing their continued residence in the land as conditional upon immediate ethical and religious reform.
The words — לֹא (lo') = not; תַּעֲשֹׁקוּ (ta‘ăšōqû) = you oppress. The verb itself denotes active exploitation, while the preceding negation word explicitly commands its cessation.
The thread — The text's dual focus on protecting vulnerable residents and rejecting foreign deities runs through Exodus 22:21, Deuteronomy 8:19, and Jeremiah 13:10.
Why it lands — The text demands the immediate end of exploiting widows, orphans, and foreigners, the stoppage of murdering the innocent, and the abandonment of idolatry as non-negotiable prerequisites for remaining in the land.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt:
Cross-references
- Exodus 22:21 You must not exploit or oppress a foreign resident, for you yourselves were foreigners in the land of Egypt.
- Deuteronomy 8:19 If you ever forget the LORD your God and go after other gods to worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely perish.
- Jeremiah 13:10 These evil people, who refuse to listen to My words, who follow the stubbornness of their own hearts, and who go after other gods to serve and worship them, they will be like this loincloth—of no use at all.
- Zechariah 7:9 “This is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Administer true justice. Show loving devotion and compassion to one another.
- Deuteronomy 11:28 but a curse if you disobey the commandments of the LORD your God and turn aside from the path I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known.
- Deuteronomy 6:14 Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you.
- Jeremiah 2:34 Moreover, your skirts are stained with the blood of the innocent poor, though you did not find them breaking in. But in spite of all these things
- Deuteronomy 24:17 Do not deny justice to the foreigner or the fatherless, and do not take a widow’s cloak as security.
- Deuteronomy 27:19 ‘Cursed is he who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’
- Psalms 82:3 Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; uphold the rights of the afflicted and oppressed.